Hen separating herself, not eating, yellow poop with some blood and LOTS of plant matter

[Sylver Queen]

Yes, please do take photos when the time comes, we will take a look.

I'm glad all your other ladies are doing well.

Will do, thank you!

 

[Sylver Queen]

Very sorry for your loss.

Thank you kindly.

 

[Sylver Queen]

Yes, please do take photos when the time comes, we will take a look.

I'm glad all your other ladies are doing well.

WARNING, GRAPHIC NECROPSY PHOTOS

First off, I attempted to alert readers that this post contains graphic necropsy photos, but did not find a way to change my post title, so there's my best shot.

Okay, here's the nitty gritty. Sorry about this for all who offered to help me make sense of the necropsy, but due to my schedule, I wasn't able to investigate why my girl died until a later date and had to freeze her. Then when I was finally able, I thought I'd thawed her, but she was still somewhat frozen! Not great conditions, but I think I may have found something regardless.

It looked to me like her digestive tract was mostly empty, but all fluid left in esophagus and crop was quite yellow, from what I'd been syringing into her mouth. When she died she vomited the egg yolk fluid I'd been feeding her before she died, so nothing was getting through near the end. She had been pooping mostly foraged greens before she died, in an attempt to fix what was wrong I suspect, but her gizzard was definitely crammed full of light brown/yellow stuff that smelled like poop. Not a whole lot of grit that I saw, but still some. I didn't find any large blockage in there. Just smoosh.

My only real experience with cutting open chickens is those from the store, and one rushed necropsy back in the spring, so I don't have great frame of reference, but I do know that most of the organs seemed about right to me, save a couple of things. There was SO much deep yellow fat inside her body cavity, all around her organs, that it seemed not right to me. I found a picture of fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome (FLHS) that looked right, except that her liver looked fine to me. No spots, though there was one section with a dark green stain on it, I suspect from the nearby organ described below. This was fat inside, past the layer of breast muscle, and all around the organs. Again, I apologize for the pic, as she was still frozen enough that I accidentally sliced through her liver while trying to get to it. Ugh.

I think it was her gallbladder that was a dark green sac that oozed black fluid.

Spleen looked all right to me.

I accidentally cut through the heart a bit, too, but it looked like a heart to me. I wouldn't pick up on subtleties, though. Dunno what it should look like beyond giblets.

Her lungs did have some dark (bloody?) spots throughout. That normal?

I did not find any visible parasites in her intestines.

Also! Her reproductive tract looked completely inactive. I found the ovary with all the little eggs, but none in progress, and the oviduct looked all right to me. Just stopped laying. Hm...

So, if you've got any questions about my findings I'll do my best to answer them! Anybody know if you can have too much fat inside the body cavity without spots on the liver and if that might kill a bird? I'm kind of at a loss otherwise. Thanks for the experienced input!

P.S. I'm also hoping my pictures load appropriately...


There was one black spot on her check, and some swelling in her comb.

Liver and lotsa fat

Lungs and their dark spots

Lotsa fat! That's INSIDE the body cavity

Gallbladder? and contents

Intestines and gizzard

Contents of gizzard, frozen, looking like yellow poop smoosh

Some stuff, in case it's helpful

Baby eggs in ovary

Empty oviduct

Sliced heart (oops)

Inside heart

Yellow guts, pretty empty

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you for the update and photos.

There was a lot of fat wasn't there. Not sure about the oviduct, hopefully someone like @coach723 or @Eggcessive will chime in.

 

[coach723]

Not sure about the lungs, I've never necropsied a bird that had been frozen, so not sure what differences in organs would look like that were caused by that. Lots of fat and the liver doesn't look healthy to me, again, not sure what affects freezing would have on it.
I don't see any grit in the gizzard, do they have access to grit? So maybe a contributing factor to not being able to pass beyond the gizzard. Maybe it's there and I just can't see it, but I would think it would be obvious. I have lost one bird to an impacted gizzard. She would eat all kinds of things trying to get things moving. Her crop was full of large amounts of grit, and grass and stuff, nothing was getting past the gizzard. In my birds case the gizzard was not normal sized (yours looks normal) and I assume the gizzard in mine stopped working. Without grit, fiberous stuff can't get ground up and it can become impacted. I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[Sylver Queen]

Not sure about the lungs, I've never necropsied a bird that had been frozen, so not sure what differences in organs would look like that were caused by that. Lots of fat and the liver doesn't look healthy to me, again, not sure what affects freezing would have on it.
I don't see any grit in the gizzard, do they have access to grit? So maybe a contributing factor to not being able to pass beyond the gizzard. Maybe it's there and I just can't see it, but I would think it would be obvious. I have lost one bird to an impacted gizzard. She would eat all kinds of things trying to get things moving. Her crop was full of large amounts of grit, and grass and stuff, nothing was getting past the gizzard. In my birds case the gizzard was not normal sized (yours looks normal) and I assume the gizzard in mine stopped working. Without grit, fiberous stuff can't get ground up and it can become impacted. I'm so sorry for your loss.

Thank you! All my birds have access to a whole lot of grit, but this group of young'uns seemed to think from day one that wood shavings (bedding) were a good thing to eat, and they sometimes binge on it as though it were grit. I always shoo them away when I see that behavior, and my other birds don't do that. I'm puzzled about a possible impaction, though, as she was pooping fluid and grass and other greens a lot before the end. Could those slip around the mass?? The greens were not broken down, so maybe it was a gizzard problem, dang it. Maybe also all that fat inside jammed up the works?... And I did a different necropsy a few months before on a bird on the same diet, and she was not fatty inside like that. Hm. Thank you again.

 

[coach723]

Birds that tend towards fat deposits can be diet caused, but can also be genetics. I lost a young pullet this spring that had a lot of fat and the beginning of fatty liver disease, she died of heat stroke. Exact same diet as the rest of my flock, and I've not had a lot of fat birds, she was the first of mine that showed fatty liver issues. She was a purchased chick, so I assume genetics played a role. Fat birds tend to have more health problems than those that are not.

 

[Sylver Queen]

Birds that tend towards fat deposits can be diet caused, but can also be genetics. I lost a young pullet this spring that had a lot of fat and the beginning of fatty liver disease, she died of heat stroke. Exact same diet as the rest of my flock, and I've not had a lot of fat birds, she was the first of mine that showed fatty liver issues. She was a purchased chick, so I assume genetics played a role. Fat birds tend to have more health problems than those that are not.

Thank you! This is what I've been thinking with mine, and though I love my local feed store and have gotten stellar chicks from them before, my most recent batch has had problems. I suspect genetic/breeding issues, as I lost this one at a year and a half, then shortly after, one of her "sisters" began laying internally, same age. I actually syringed quite a bit of yolk matter out of her abdomen for several days, then she stopped laying to molt, and though she looks worse for the wear and still has a hard mass inside near her vent, she is still running around being a chicken. I feel that I will lose her come spring laying, if not sooner, but for now she is eating and molting and being a chicken, so I'll care for her until she's done. I'm sorry for your loss as well.